Griswold 2010 - Day 14

We began day 14 with a relatively short drive to the Chattanooga area. There were a lot of low hanging clouds and fog over the Chattanooga valley, since it rained heavily there the day before. We decided to give the moisture time to burn off, so we headed for Ruby Falls, which is a cave tour that ends with a view of the underground falls.

The tour itself was no big deal. We've been to much more impressive caves before. Ruby Falls, however, did not disappoint. With healthy rainfalls in the area over recent times, the falls were full and beautiful.

They were tasty too! (Okay...since we were warned that the water is filled with high levels of magnesium, which can flush out one's system, so to speak, there was no real drinking!)

After Ruby Falls, we headed up onto Lookout Mountain, where we visited Rock City. There were parts of Rock City that were beautiful and/or historic...

...while there were other parts that were whimsical or silly.

All in all though, it was a lot of fun.

From Rock City, we headed into Chattanooga to get some lunch, before heading up to the top of Lookout Mountain on the Incline Railway. Once on the top, we visited the Battles for Chattanooga Museum, which told the story of the Civil War engagements in and around Chattanooga and featured an electric map which assisted in telling the tale. From there, we walked to Point Park, which gave us a great view of Chattanooga from high above the city. As we were leaving the park, rain started moving in, so we headed back to the Incline Railway and rode it back down to our car. After a quick ice cream stop, we headed out of Chattanooga.

As we headed East out of Chattanooga, we ran into periods of torrential rain, which made navigating some of the state roads that wound through the East Tennessee hills quite challenging. Eventually though, we made it to the last stop of the day, the World's Largest Ten Commandments, outside of Murphy, NC. It was still pouring when we arrived, but we took some pictures from a sheltered area, before the rain finally stopped.

Since the rain stopped, Steve and Anne braved the many stairsteps up to the top of the hill and onto the large bible itself. They were only a little winded (HA!) when they triumphantly finished the task.

From there, it was time to head for the hotel. More to come!